What's next for downtown Oklahoma City?

A 220-foot-high amusement ride might or might not become a reality in Bricktown, but the overall momentum downtown is unquestionably giddy as the city moves beyond the 20th anniversary of the original Metropolitan Area Projects.

An Automobile Alley sign looking south toward downtown with the Devon Energy Tower in the background is seen. Photo by Doug Hoke, The Oklahoman
DOUG HOKE -
THE OKLAHOMAN

The initiative, more commonly known as MAPS, consisted of a five-year, one-penny sales tax designed to add life back to the urban core of Oklahoma City. Without the investment, Oklahoma City would not have the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, the Bricktown Canal, the Chesapeake Energy Arena, a modern downtown library, a revived Oklahoma River, or a robust convention center, music hall or fairgrounds.

And for that matter, the city would not have the NBA Thunder or the River Sports park that has developed along the river.

A new mid-rise tower is set to be built in the Arts District for a new OGE Energy Corp. headquarters, with the prospect of additional mid- to high-rise towers possible on the block that for four decades was home to Stage Center. New mid- to high-rise towers also are quietly being contemplated in the Central Business District, where office vacancy is scarce.

Construction cranes have stayed busy downtown and in surrounding districts for more than a decade, but at ground level, an equally important transformation is underway. New stores, attractions and events are ensuring that the momentum will continue for the foreseeable future. Amidst such excitement, it’s not surprising that a local petroleum land man is hoping to build a a 220-foot “Bricktown Flyer” in the state’s premier entertainment district.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to step back and survey the changes, district by district, to get a real grasp of what’s underway.

Automobile Alley

A half-century ago, downtown had a retail corridor along Main Street between Walker Avenue and Broadway, but most of those buildings were razed, and the street itself between Robinson and Hudson Avenues was eliminated as part of Urban Renewal’s I.M. Pei plan of the ’60s and ’70s.

Without such storefronts to use as the base for bringing back retail, and with the realization that suburban malls do not work in urban areas, planners concluded about a dozen years ago that Broadway between NW 4 and NW 13 presented the best opportunity for a retail resurgence. The pre-World War II automobile dealership buildings with large display windows were seen as ideal for new storefronts.

Retail, however, did not truly get started until the past few years as downtown’s residential population grew.

The restaurant scene, meanwhile, is set to grow. Broadway 10 Chophouse prepares to open in a newly renovated Buick Building. And Broadway itself continues to bask under the glow of neon signage all along the strip — an effort that began with a grant program provided by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.

By this fall, a hint of the next big addition to Automobile Alley will appear at NW 11 and Broadway, where an assembly of shipping containers will be erected to form an observation deck and showroom for what will eventually be the new home for the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center.

And although the public has yet to see any designs, the track record of the project’s architect, Rand Elliott, includes some of the most daring designs in the city, including the boathouses along the Oklahoma River and Classen Curve shopping center.

Bricktown

As Oklahoma’s busiest urban entertainment district, Bricktown draws millions of visitors annually. Despite such traffic, the old warehouse district still had gaps in its development — dead, empty, upper floors and even a couple of boarded-up windows.

A new wave of development is set to transform Bricktown once again, with an influx of hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms. The Steelyard, to be built this winter at E Sheridan Avenue and Joe Carter Avenue, will include a Hyatt Place Hotel and apartments with retail on the ground floor. At least three other hotels are being developed in east Bricktown, while a Holiday Inn Express is set to open later this year at Oklahoma Avenue and Main Street.

Tom Ward’s Tapstone Energy, meanwhile, is set to bring up to 140 employees to the long-vacant upper floors of the Mideke Building just south of the Holiday Inn Express. Construction also has started on Brickopolis, a restaurant, entertainment center and gift shop that will overlook the Bricktown Canal just west of the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

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Steve Lackmeyer is a reporter and columnist who started his career at The Oklahoman in 1990. Since then, he has won numerous awards for his coverage, which included the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the city's Metropolitan...